KPI Attachment— a Necessary Review Document in the Call Center Business

Posted on July 21, 2009

Summary: Most Call Centers acknowledge the need to monitor their KPI trends but most do not know what they are doing this for and how it affects the center’s overall performance.

kpi

KPI attachment is a common document prepared and reviewed by most businesses to be able to track and see the trend on their employees’ performances. However, despite its acknowledged importance on any business and despite the ability of people handling these records to read them, very little has been done to make use of them. This is a common problem for a lot of industries, and the Call Center Business is no different.

The very core of the Call Center Business is what makes KPI very important to them. In a very customer oriented environment such as that of a call center, the Key Performance Indicator’s movements must be consistently closely checked and evaluated for the business’ benefit. Definitely easier said than done because KPI’s are not mere documents that you read as it is but rather a document of great importance which will require one to overlook unnecessary details and focus on details affecting the center’s performance. Below are the five things you have to be critical about when inspecting a KPI record.

Cost per Call. A common misconception among call center people is that cost per call is reduced by decreasing their Average Handling Time. This is because of the emphasis placed on AHT due to the mindset that call centers are paid not on the hours they spend on a call but rather the number of calls they are able to get each day. In some way this may be correct but let us remember that all five Key Performance Indicators go hand in hand and therefore if you focus too much on this, you might end up losing on the other aspect of the business. To make this clear, let us now turn this discussion on our next KPI.
Agent Utilization. Going hand in hand with Cost per Call is Agent Utilization. Agent utilization is the answer to the unending need to cut on costs, not reducing AHT. Let us remember that a big chunk of a company’s budget goes to labor— and this is unavoidable. So, what is it to be done? Avoid turnovers by keeping your agents. You have invested on them during training and so you must be able to make the most of them as one of the company’s resources. This does not mean overworking them though. You need to motivate them to do their jobs well for the company through ‘career pathing’, trainings and time-off-phone activities that enhances their productivity and keeps the workplace enjoyable for them.
Customer Satisfaction. Now, if the agents are enjoying their jobs, it is most likely that they would be productive on phone, thus increasing customer satisfaction. This is also a very critical part of a center’s KPI. If you are a Call Center Professional, you might have heard this couple of times—Customers are the bread and butter of a Call Center and therefore should be treated well. The catch here is that having very kind agents does not guarantee Customer Satisfaction. The next KPI does.
First Call Resolution. FCR is probably one of the most emphasized KPI on most Call Centers. This is because most studies show that FCR has a great effect on Customer Satisfaction. Let us deal with a fact— customer calls in because of a problem and she expects you to resolve it in the soonest time possible. Staying on the phone longer than she expected would make her feel bad BUT calling for support over and over again would make her feel mad. Therefore, make sure to resolve the customer’s issue on your first contact with her.
Aggregate Call Center Performance. The last but probably most important amongst all. This is a measure of a Call Center’s overall performance. It is the only KPI capable of determining whether a center is on the rocks or is operating smoothly. It is the summary of the six critical performance metrics (Cost per Contact, FCR, Customer Satisfaction, Average Speed of Answer, Call Abandonment Rate and Agent Utilization) seen through a Balanced Scorecard.

Now that you know where to look at, you would no longer be distracted by other less important details which in turn would ensure that you get to evaluate and act on the most essential details of the KPI Attachment.